How to overcome inferiority complex from not getting into IB?
I'm 21, a recent graduate in the UK who is currently on an ACA grad scheme.
I did terribly in my A-Levels and ended up at a complete non-target university, so unsurprisingly I was constantly rejected for internships and was rejected from countless graduate roles. I graduated with a first class degree in economics, although this doesn't mean much since it was from a really low ranking university.
I did manage to get on an accounting/tax graduate scheme and I'm currently in my first year of the graduate scheme where I've been completing the ACA as part of my role. The pay is pretty decent (especially for someone like me from a non-target university) but it's not what I wanted to do. It was the only offer I had and beggars can't be choosers.
My office is actually near some Investment Banks and I have to walk past them to get to work and it just makes me feel like a massive failure lol. Every single time I walk to work it's a constant reminder that I should have worked harder. I know this sounds stupid but I get embarrassed when I walk past them knowing I didn't get into IB and I'm in an inferior job.
My friends from Cambridge and Oxford all have elite jobs in IB earning more than double what I make and have already achieved career success in their first role. Their jobs as IB analysts are more prestigious and impressive than anything I will ever do in my career in an inferior sector (accounting/tax).
I remember when we all graduated from university and first started our jobs we met up for drinks and they were talking about all the offers they received from different banks and one friend of mine even told everyone how he had to turn down a bulge bracket offer because he had an offer from a more prestigious bank. Another friend 'only' got into a boutique firm and everyone was cracking jokes at his expense and it was just light-hearted fun since even the boutique firm friend laughed. When I said I was only working in accounting/tax everyone just went silent and a few friends offered their commiserations and quickly changed the subject.
Obviously I'm happy for my friends and they deserve what they have and it's my fault that I have what I have, but it is so embarrassing to be so far off them especially since everyone expected me to go to Cambridge and get a good job as well.
I've stopped caring about my job and I don't bother much apart from doing the bare minimum because I feel like such a failure. I'm only 21 but my career is already over since I can't get into the field I want because I didn't get into a good university.
How do you get over having an inferiority complex? Is it even possible? If not, how do you eventually settle and accept an inferior situation?
if you're at a Big 4, qualify as an accountant and try to take a stab at lateraling to IB. rothschild and evercore do ACCA analyst programs. to be honest, even when you're in IB, there's way more superiority/inferiority dynamics. some guy doing IBD at GS is gonna make it way further in life than someone doing IBD at fenchurch advisory. it is what it is.
Not at Big 4. Took another offer at an advisory firm since it pays more and has more transaction type work.
You posted something similar on a different thread about your ambitions to get into IB. After reading the old thread I guessed that this was the situation - that your desire actually comes from your friends. It seems that my suspicions were right in that they (whether intentionally or not) are making you feel this way.
Now some others are likely going to come in and tell you to suck it up and move on and they might be right to an extent but honestly imo its worth rethinking whether a guy who gloats to his mates (especially to those without 'prestigious' offers) about his countless BB offers is someone you'd want to keep around as a friend.
I think a lot of people here put so much pressure on target schools, and on a top IB career, that can easily make someone feel like a failure, when it isn't really merited.
While there might be a standard/ideal path, there are other routes in life, and I'm finance/banking as well. If you notice, some of us with long careers might have switched around a bit, which might not have been the standard route.
Life rarely goes according to an ideal plan, and there might be bumps on the road, or a potential detour to get back to your path.
An accountant can be one of the most employable candidates in the job market; and even outside of banking, will have vast opportunity.
If you are merely seeking a banking career because others like to behave like a peacock, then you might want to consider if you really want that career -- friends come and go in life, and you are the only one who will care about your career, years from now.
If they are making you feel that way, I agree that you might want to take a break from them, and to think more clearly, because it is not likely the sort of thing that a good friend should be doing.
Focus on what is best for you, and your best step forward. You can't change what might have been, but you decide the path forward that you choose to take.
I will tell you that I have seen accountants from very non-target schools, without experience in IB, still end up in a finance role. It might require some creative steps of switching jobs a few times, and obviously a bit rare, but I have seen it done before.
Good luck.
A few Qs - What do you even think IB was/is? Is this all because you have friends who work there and you don't and you feel embarrassed or did you actually have some sort of plan? What did you want to do with that job? If you had gotten it, then what? After your analyst stint, then what? What do you think you've missed out on?
To answer your Q - There's no trick, just get the fuck over it. Realize it doesn't mean anything. Nothing is stopping you from trying again down the road. In general, IB is just used a stepping stone for like 80%+ of the people who get in to some other industry. There are tons of examples of people who are successful and get into PE/HF/Corp Dev or other kinds of "high finance" roles without IB experience. Developing an inferiority complex over something as silly as a job is never going to help you, it's just a waste of mental space. If this job is so easy you need to crush it, do extra work/research outside of work, and keep grinding to try and break into whatever you think the next step is.
Grow the fuck up. This is a loser's attitude. Your career doesn't even exist yet, you're 21 and just barely getting started. It's stupid to act like your whole future is bust because of this one perceived setback. But, you doing the bare minimum at this job because you don't care makes it seem like this was probably the right job for you anyway, because if you can't do well at this job then you never had a chance in IB.
signed sincerely by - someone who interviewed at 9 different banks during undergrad (despite ~meh~ grades at a semi-target), failed to get an offer from any of them, and still ended up in PE after a 2-year stint in non-IB M&A
Simple: grow the fuck up and stop moping
I pray I never have to work with you. Lots of maturing to do
you won't
just kidding. Stop giving a fuck about it lol. It's just another job. Sure, overall salary for the year is great, but hourly? Yikes
There are tons of other intellectually stimulating jobs that somewhat overlap that you can do (i.e. corp dev, etc)
You desperately need to log off the internet. Being an investment banking analyst is a great paying job for a young kid and can set you up well for a future career, but it is hardly life-defining or the epitome of "prestige."
Starting a business that is so successful that your parents retire and/or come work for you before you're old enough to rent a car is impressive. Being a brain surgeon is impressive. Curing cancer is impressive. Playing in excel and powerpoint for 80 hours a week is not.
Life is full of disappointments and setbacks. You can let them define you, or you can get the fuck over them and move on to the next thing.
Lol it's literally easier to be a brain surgeon than it is to become an investment banker, at least here in the UK where you have to go to elite universities to stand a chance at getting into IB whereas you can still become a neurosurgeon by going to a mediocre medical school. IB prestige is unmatched and unlike other people who fail to get into IB and like to pretend 'it doesn't matter', I'm not high on copium and can accept the reality that I'm in an inferior career.
Getting into one of the mots competitive careers that has tens of thousands of applicants just for a fucking internship, many of whom are from the best universities in the world with competitive profiles, is absolutely a remarkable achievement that is superior to less competitive professions.
By 'moving onto the next thing' you are essentially accepting you are not good enough therefore people who could get into it are simply better. My friends from Cambridge who are in investment banking are objectively better and more impressive than I am. Their first job is literally more impressive than anything I will ever do in my career since it's in a less prestigious and less competitive industry. That's just a fact.
Just quoting these for future copypasta. Fucking hilarious.
By touching grass. Among my cohort, we grew out of this childish mindset by 3rd year already, I'm genuinely surprised you're still in the toxic Spring Week hivemind. Seems like you should see more of the world.
Your cohort probably made it into elite roles so it's easy for you to say that since you've already achieved a prestigious role. I'm a loser who didn't do well enough so I'm just saying the truth that I'm in an objectively inferior career.
Just go to IB after an MBA if you want it so bad.
That's the plan, but I have to get into an M7 MBA for it to be worth it as an international since I'm British.
Obviously I'm not getting into Harvard/Stanford/Wharton but the rest of the M7 would be more than enough. Ideal situation would be Columbia but if not Booth would be fine too. Will also apply for NYU even though it's not an M7 since it's still have decent IB placement.
If I don't get into any of those then it's gg and I'll just accept the L.
Again, you are setting yourself up for failure. M7 or bust is a bad attitude. Multiple T-15 schools (NYU as you mentioned, Cornell, Dartmouth) have great IB placement, even for international students.
You want to make this happen? Crush your job, get a few promotions/leadership opportunities so you have something to talk about on applications. Find an extracurricular or two you that you care about (volunteer work, etc.). Study hard for the GMAT and crush it. Pick 6 or so schools to apply to in round 1 (maximizes acceptance odds and scholarship opportunities) and then put actual time into your applications (there is excellent software a lot of people use called Applicant Lab that is significantly cheaper than hiring a consultant).Then after you get accepted, start to drill your technicals and learn how to network in the few months before school starts so you can step on campus day 1 ready to go.
Seriously, the idea that everything is over for you at 21 is absurd. Do you know the percentage of people in banking who are undergrads vs. those who came in through business school?
Nulla at alias et consequatur et minus omnis. Eligendi et et omnis modi voluptates officia.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...